Spring is the season of new beginnings, rebirth, joy, and renewed hope. Fresh buds bloom, animals awaken, and the earth seems to come to life again. With Spring the beauty of the world is in full display in an onslaught of colors that is forcing the darkness of the long winter months into a hasty retreat. The world radiates with alacrity, the sky is painted in stunning streaks of red, pink, purple, and blue, and the birds sing their delight to the heavens. Some people say that God created Hope and Spring on the same day. So, let Hope, and Spring Eternal find their way to your home.
Hope, Spring Eternal
2021 carries with it a lot of hope bearing in mind what we all went through in 2020. We are living in an age of despair and fractured communities where we are being forced to alienate ourselves from our family, friends, colleagues, and clients. The unintended consequences of this forced isolation are that the less we interact with other people, the less tolerance we feel for other people, and the more we find comfort in our own ‘sanitized’ bubbles.
Hope triggers a sense of purpose and aspirations during desperate times. Hope provides a haven from pessimism and fear. It galvanizes our courage and mobilizes our energy and vitality. It enhances our mood and our creative thinking.
Joanne Reed
“Hope is the place you want to go when you find yourself sitting in a dark place. Hope is the name of the person you want to know where all the people around you are spreading fear and misery. Hope is the seed that is buried deep inside you that you want to sprinkle around like magic fairy dust. Hope is the feeling that carries you through, no matter what”
But let’s steer away for a moment from the lovely fluffiness and romanticism attached to this noble feeling of hope, joy, and peace for all; hoping for things to get better without doing something about it is not enough. We have to spring into action and be more intentional about our hopes and aspirations for the future.
If you think that all the problems of the world will be resolved as soon as we can all agree on how to move forward, then you are kidding yourself because instead of going to that place called Hope, you will swim in an ocean of Despair. Asking everyone to agree on one thing is an impossibility, and the earlier we realize this, the better it will be.
Being able to work together and live in a semi-harmonious manner with our neighbors and within our community is good enough. Don’t try to aim for a utopic world vision seen through pink-tinted glasses where everyone loves and helps each other. Stay real and grounded, it is not about friendship and interacting only with the people you like and the people who think the same way as you think. Life is about getting along with people who are different from you, with people you find boring, annoying, or even objectionable; because the challenges that face us as a group are more important than our personal likes and dislikes. It doesn’t matter what people believe, what matters is what they do. Agree on actions.
Humans are naturally cooperative and loving. We raise children and care for pets. Divide and conquer is a strategy that has been used since the beginning of time by a small group of people who are thriving to exert control over the populace. The more energy is expended by the public fighting among themselves the less anger is directed at the overlord class. It is a Machiavellian ploy. Do not fall into this trap.
But I digress, let’s get back to hope, spring eternal; during springtime, the buds that stayed buried in the ground during the whole winter months decided all together that now is the time to spring into action and burst into life with the common purpose of sharing their beauty with the world.
Hope, Spring eternal may the spirit of Spring give us the strength to act with a sense of purpose for the benefit of all.
Joanne Reed
Hope for a new kind of Renaissance
Renaissance is a French word meaning “rebirth.” It refers to a period (14th till 17th Century) in European civilization that was marked by a revival of classical learning and wisdom. From its origins in 14th-century Florence, the Renaissance spread across Europe and it changed the world in just about every way one could think and it came right after one of the darkest periods of human history where the black plague killed millions of people (1 in 3 people across the world perished from the plague).
The Renaissance pushed the boundaries of what we know and what could be achieved. New continents were discovered. Copernicus and Galileo shocked the world and most importantly the whole ecclesiastic establishment by establishing that the Earth was not the center of the Universe but was revolving around the Sun. Radical thinkers such as the humanist Erasmus expounded a new way of looking at the world that owed less to blind subservience to the Catholic Church and more to the possibilities inherent in the human mind.
Never before had there been such a coming together of art, science, and philosophy. And never before had there been such an opportunity for it to be so widely disseminated, thanks to the invention in 1440 by Gutenberg of the printing press. For the first time, books could be mass-produced. A single press could churn out 3,600 pages a day, resulting in an explosion of literature and ideas unprecedented in history.
Erasmus (the humanist) became a bestselling author. The new ideas of free-thinkers, mathematicians, and scientists all became accessible to the masses. Art and science became, for the first time in human history, truly democratic.
Humanism emphasized the dignity of man. In place of the medieval ideal of a life of penance as the highest and noblest form of human activity, the humanists encourage the rebirth of a lost human spirit and wisdom. The effect of humanism was to help men break free from the mental prison imposed by religious orthodoxy, to inspire free inquiry and criticism, and to inspire new confidence in the possibilities of human thought and creations.
The seeds of the modern world were sown and grown during the Renaissance. With Spring in full bloom, we should thrive for the return of a Modern-Day-Renaissance where creativity, freedom of thoughts, and expression are free to bloom for all the world to see allowing mankind to achieve new heights in this tumultuous period.
And my dear friend, This is Your Quest
For more on this subject you can purchase my book This is Your Quest online at BookLocker, from Amazon or from Barnes & Noble. The Ebook version is available on Amazon (Kindle), Barnes & Noble (Nook), Apple (iBooks) & Kobo. Check out my Amazon Author Page here or my listing on Booksradar.com.
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13 replies on “Hope, Spring Eternal. all Right Spring. Do Your Thing!”
Great article! We can only hope that after the pandemic brings a new sort of renaissance:)
Absolutely! Thanks Andrew for stopping by and for taking the time to comment.
thank you for your thoughtful story on Spring
So glad to hear that my article resonates with you! Stay tuned in, more to come.
Thank you SOOOO much, Joanne, for the lovely and thought-inspiring story on Spring. The Renaissance was, indeed, the trigger for our modern views of this season—and its values and qualities should be with us all year long.
Renaissance has been also influenced by all ancient civilizations whether the Roman Empire,ancient Greece , ancient China , ancient India , Mesopotamia , ancient Eygpt and Hermos, the old Muslim empires like the Ammauite empire and the Fatimade empire and so on .( With all respect and appreciation to all civilizations that all interacted and merged into a global civilization in several ways…
Thanks so much for your feedback and additional insight into this! Much appreciated.
There is a Persian philosopher similar to sophists called ghazaly and his books were translated to English . One of his books is called the Alchamy of happiness . Happiness comes from knowing oneself and his divine origin …
Thanks for sharing this information. Will keep a note of it.
Thank you Steve for your kind words of appreciation! Much appreciated.
The image as hope as a seed really speaks to me and also our ability to spread hope to other people. I also appreciate that you emphasized the importance of doing something, not just hoping. Thank you for sharing with us a hopeful message. Makes me feel inspired and ask myself how I can spread hope as I go about my day.
Thank you for stopping by and for taking the time to comment. I am so glad to hear that my article resonates with you and gave you some inspiration to spread hope around you. As I mentioned in my article titled ‘Insignificant, yet important”. Whether we are conscious of it or not, our words and actions do have an impact on the people around us and on our environment. We can have a positive or negative impact on this world through the choices we make every day. You do not need to be famous, wealthy, or write a book to be influential. You are surrounded by family, friends, colleagues, random people you come in contact with all the time, and this in itself gives you some kind of influence. If you radiate good vibes people will be drawn to you.
You’re welcome! Very true and wise.